SCIENCE

INTENT:

Our Core Curriculum of Science is outstanding and supports all children in achieving and in many cases succeeding in their academic and personal development. It meets the statutory requirements of NC 2014 and is embedded securely and consistently across the school. We ensure that the content is coherently planned and sequenced logically and made relevant and purposeful and that it is delivered in an inspiring and innovative way. The school values the enrichment to learning experiences which the Science Curriculum brings to the children and as such, much time is spent collaborating on planning and sharing subject knowledge and expertise to ensure that the Science curriculum is not only relevant, engaging and memorable but that it also ensures that children are able to make informed choices based upon scientific investigation and challenge ideas by testing theories.

IMPLEMENTATION:

At St Cuthbert’s the teaching and learning of Science focuses on enabling children to think as scientists. We have used the best research to create a well sequenced and progressive curriculum map containing the key concepts children need to be procedurally fluent in, to work, think and write like scientists. Science at St. Cuthbert’s is about developing children’s ideas and ways of working that enable them to make sense in the world in which they live through investigation, as well as using and applying process skills.

IMPACT:

We have used teachers’ knowledge of the whole curriculum to create a well sequenced and progressive curriculum map containing the key concepts children need to be procedurally fluent in to work and think like professional scientists.

We ensure progression in the following key concepts:

Conceptual understanding
Processes
Skills of enquiry
Scientific attitudes
From using everyday language to increasingly precise use of technical, scientific vocabulary;
From personal scientific knowledge in a few areas to understanding in a wider range of areas and knowing how these link together;
From describing events and phenomena;
From explaining phenomena in terms of their own ideas, to explaining phenomena in terms of scientifically accepted ideas or models;
From participating in adult lead practical, scientific investigations to developing and undertaking their own scientific investigations, independently;
From unstructured exploration to more systematic investigation of a question or questions developed independently;